1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for conducting a transaction—such as the purchase of goods and services—in a virtual environment, which further incorporates online auctions, inventory management of real-life goods, a bartering system between two or more individuals, an automatic mark-down and mark-up of tagged items displayed for sale, and the automatic checking of credit using existing credit and banking systems, or other types of systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Virtual environments, especially social platforms and games are being used in multiple ways to introduce products, services, education, advertising, business models, and medical procedures as well as other types of goods and services, to consumers. The integration of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) images, holograms, video, music in different formats, satellite transmission, global positioning system (GPS), and still images, objects, and photographs, into computer applications, are becoming the mainstream.
However, despite the plethora of products and services available for consumers, the actual sale of goods and services in a virtual environment that supports a commercial or game application, in 3D, or which supports, incorporates, or ties into inventory systems, has not yet been explored. Another component that is not supported in present virtual environments is the ability to mark-up and mark-down merchandise based on a date-tag system or the loss of a tag, have live auctions, and the ability to barter between two or individuals in a real life environment, or users who are playing in a virtual game environment. Thus, the present invention would fill such a need in the present virtual environment schema.